Hug a millennial today

Published 7:00 am, Saturday, November 19, 2016

Yes, it’s largely related to chocolate, but there’s a new fuel adding to my addiction, and it’s in the form of a puzzle game I downloaded on my phone the day after the election.

I couldn’t stomach social media that Wednesday, people — friends and family — were very ugly toward each other. And I was worried about my country.

So instead of following social media and the news, or volunteering for a cause to help my fellow man, I found myself lost in a puzzle game that rhymes with “Dandy Lush” and consists of unscrambling pieces of candy.

Because if I wasn’t working on puzzles, I was finding myself — like many others — wondering, “What the heck just happened?”

I understood the majority of America wanted change — and they didn’t believe Hillary Clinton is the person who can change things. They saw her as another eight years of Barack Obama.

The Democrats can argue all they want that things are better now than in 2008, and many of us believe they are. But for so many Americans, the past eight years have been stagnant. Our incomes are the same, our buying power is less. We’re asked to do more for with less.

So we voted for Trump, or we threw our support behind a third party candidate. Others wrote-in some nonsense candidate on our presidential election ballot. Let’s face it, a lot of us were angry — and we opted to not follow the status quo.

But for younger voters (the millennial generation), it’s very hard to see that. We raised this generation, and taught them to be kind, and that good overcomes bad. Many millennials are now grieving because they feel bad won.

They are upset that the president-elect is not the person who received the majority of votes. As a Gen-Y’er, or whatever the heck generation I am, I lived through Bush versus Gore. And generations above me have lived through an election being decided by the electoral college.

Even conservatives who benefited from the electoral college in 2000, and now who benefit from it again in 2016, were criticizing the electoral college leading up to this most recent election day. I can’t count how many times I heard or read people talk about how this election is “rigged,” and that the electoral college process is part of that rigged system, if Hillary wins.

But she didn’t, and now those calls of a rigged system have gone on the wayside.

These young people are experiencing this angst for the first time. They are witnessing the further polarization of America, and they are speaking up. They are, for the most part, assembling peacefully to make their feelings known. They are saying love trumps hate — and urging lawmakers of new and old to heed their voices. To not let any kind of legislation or policy that discriminates a certain sector of society be made.

And what are they getting in return? The scorn from so many in my generation and from those older than me. Since the election, I have witnessed so many young Americans — many of them young friends from afar — who are standing up. They are saying, “I’ve always wondered why somebody hasn’t said something to change this. Now I’ve realized I’m that somebody.”

To me, it’s inspiring. It gives me hope. I love seeing younger voters get involved in not just democracy, but in volunteering and helping other people.

Unfortunately, I’m not seeing that same appreciation from my peers or elders. If anything, the common mantra has been, “Your candidate lost, shut up.”

But one of the great things about being an American is the fact that we never have to shut up. And it’s awesome to see so many millennials not just not shut up, but show up.

To think that people are laughing at this generation is bewildering. I’ve seen the jokes — that this generation is protesting because they were raised with participation trophies. That they are entitled.

But why do we say that? What is it about this generation that makes them so entitled? They are riddled with student debt. Their entry-level pay is less than what it was for generations before them. They aren’t buying houses, because they can’t. While a 40-hour work week for other generations was the norm, they are getting less hours, some working more than one job — and many struggle to afford health care coverage.

To me, it’s mind boggling that they aren’t as jaded, tired and angry as the rest of us.

So I hope others join me in giving this generation some sugar. They are our future (and we all want it to be sweet).